ONGAR COMMUNITY TREE STRATEGY Epping Forest District Council Epping Forest
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EB1005 ONGAR COMMUNITY TREE STRATEGY www.eppingforestdc.gov.uk Epping Forest District Council Epping Forest 80% Recycled Paper EB1005 EB1005 ONGAR COMMUNITY TREE STRATEGY An assessment of the trees, hedgerows and woods of the parish in their historic, physical, social and cultural context, with guidelines for their future management. Prepared by Epping Forest District Council, with Ongar Town Council, Ongar Millennium History Society, and Ongar Wildlife Society. Dedication This community tree strategy for Ongar is dedicated to those local people who gave up their time to produce this document. Particular acknowledgement is due to the late Paul Moxey, whose understanding of the relationship between landscape history and human activity underpins this important document. EB1005 Contents Foreword 3 Introduction 4 Key Aims and Actions 5 Character Appraisal 6 Geology and Early Landscape History 7 Map showing Surface Geology of the Ongar Area 8 A Developing Landscape 9 Ongar Woodland History 10 Domesday Woodland Survey 11 The Royal Forest of Essex 12 Medieval Timber Management 13 Historical Maps of Ongar 14 19th Century Maps 15 21st Century Location Map of Ongar 16 - 17 Present Day Landscape 18 - 25 Local Climate 27 Looking to the Future 28 Glossary 29 - 30 Sources 31 Acknowledgements 31 Sponsors 32 EB1005 Foreword By Pauline Buchanan–Black, Director, The Tree Council In the first decade of the 21st Century our awareness has increased of the contribution made by trees to our health and well being, as well as appreciation of their role to help define character of the landscape. In ancient countryside, such as Ongar, the pattern of trees, woodland and hedgerows is particularly important, and of course the veteran trees should be regarded as Green Monuments in their own right. At the same time, however, our awareness of threats to the treescape, both of town and country has increased, whether from changed patterns of living, the threat of massive new developments, or of unprecedented climate change. In these changing circumstances I believe it is vital for the future of our communities that we find new ways to protect trees and to encourage new and appropriate tree planting. For that, the involvement and active engagement of the community will be vital. In that context this initiative is both timely and inspiring. The work done to produce it has been a true partnership, with dedicated involvement of many individuals from the local community, with community organisations and the Town and District Councils in support. It might, and I believe it should, serve as a model for other communities across Britain. On behalf of the Tree Council I am pleased to endorse this Community Tree Strategy for Ongar. 3 EB1005 Introduction This is the fourth of the proposed district-wide series of Community Tree Strategies. It has been developed by Epping Forest District Council with active cooperation and support of the Ongar Town Council, local community organisations and local residents. It is intended that the information and guidance that it contains will promote the protection and active conservation of trees and hedgerows and encourage public participation in projects to enhance the local environment and so influence long term change for the better. The scope of the project is to: 1) Assess the current treescape of the parish of Ongar 2) View the landscape in its physical, historic, social and cultural context 3) Provide guidance for all concerned on the conservation, management and enhancement for the future. 4 EB1005 Key Aim and Actions The key aim of the Ongar Tree Strategy is to conserve and protect the landscape of the area by encouraging and supporting local projects that enhance its quality and increase its accessibility for the community. This will be achieved by: 1) ensuring that significant trees are not 6) protecting and encouraging careful unnecessarily or unjustifiably lost particularly management of the parish’s most important as a result of the planning and development trees by identifying and recording them, through processes. co-operation with their owners, and by legal means and planning powers when necessary. 2) increasing the coverage of hedgerows within 7) ensuring that tree owners are aware of the the countryside, by avoiding further losses importance of trees, and that sources of advice except where necessary and justified, and are available, locally and from the District supporting the planting of new hedgerows. Council. 3) encouraging the 8) encouraging planting of trees, the conservation particularly larger of traditional growing trees in elements of the suitable locations. countryside, and taking advantage of opportunities for enhancement. 4) locating and recording all the important ancient hedgerows within the parish and encouraging their management and protection. 9) continuing to use a variety of means to promote the importance of trees as part of the landscape of the parish, and the life of the community. 5) working with woodland owners and statutory bodies to record and manage woods, conserve their key features, increase their value for wildlife and, when appropriate, increase public access. 5 EB1005 Character Appraisal Location The town of Ongar lies 11 miles (17.6km) from Chelmsford, 5 miles (8km) from Epping and 7 miles (11km) from Brentwood. In 1966, Shelley, Chipping Ongar and Greensted together with Marden Ash, were almalgamated to form Ongar Parish (now Town) Council. This covers an area of 2,229 acres (902 hectares), with the greater proportion still in agricultural use. However local residents are fortunate that the open agricultural land surrounding Ongar can Size of Parish Hectares Acres be accessed by a network of well maintained public footpaths. Chipping Ongar 183 452 Greensted 275 680 The highest point of the area is about 200 ft (60 Marden Ash 198 489 metres) above sea level. The land is relatively Shelley 246 608 flat, but with several streams cut into it. The Total 902 2229 Cripsey Brook flows through the area to the confluence with the River Roding at the eastern According to the Tree Council woodlands cover edge of the parish. 10% of the whole of the British Isles, but the amount of woodland varies from place to place. The population of the Ongar area in the 2001 In Ongar, woodlands cover less than 6% of the census was 6060, but has risen since then total area, whilst agricultural land covers just with the occupation of several new housing under 90%. developments. 6 EB1005 Geology and Early churches and other buildings. A few examples occur in the Ongar area. Landscape History Geological Foundation Ongar lies on the boundary of two geological areas. It is within both the London Basin and on the southern edge of the East Anglian plateau - a slightly raised swathe of glacial Boulder Clay stretching from mid Essex into Suffolk and Norfolk. The Cripsey Brook and its tributary streams flow into the River Roding, forming part of the network of rivers that feed into the Thames to drain the London Clay, Claygate and Bagshot Beds which fill the London Basin. This basin is the great hidden downfold in the chalk which dips between the Chiltern Hills and the North Downs. In the local area, the higher ground is covered with boulder clay and areas of gravel that were left behind by melting ice sheets at the close of the last Ice Age, c.10,000 years ago. These include the remains of a substantial glacial lake at Shelley, in which a mammoth tusk was found during the construction of a reservoir in 1983. Mammoth Tusk found at Shelley, 1983 These glacial deposits originally covered The significance of the underlying geology lies the whole district. They stretch northwards in its influence on the history of the landscape, into Suffolk and Norfolk as the East Anglian and the way in which the different character of Plateau. Locally, they have been cut through by the various rocks is reflected in the types of the River Roding and its tributaries to expose tree and other plants that grow on them. Ash, the underlying London Clay and, in the west of dogwood and clematis, all of which grow in the the parish, a small area of the Claygate Beds, local hedges, prefer lime-rich conditions and which lies above the London Clay. are more frequent on the boulder clay, whereas willows and poplars occur more in the valley The result is a gently undulating landscape, bottoms. Of course it is possible to successfully with the higher ground capped by glacial clays grow trees in places where they would not and gravel patches, but dissected by a network be found naturally and there are some local of streams to expose the underlying London examples of trees that ‘do not fit’ because they Clay along the flanks of their valleys. Along the reflect a past landowner’s whim. However, Roding and parts of the other streams there in general, the geology helps to explain the are deposits of alluvium. distribution of the local trees. Scattered throughout the area there are occasional ‘sarsens’, naturally cemented blocks of sandstone, thought to have come from a rock formation which previously extended over much of southern England but which has been lost through erosion. Individual stones were sometimes used to mark old trackways and were often incorporated into the foundations of 7 EB1005 Drawn by Paul Moxey EB1005 A Developing Landscape The origins of today’s landscape lie in the developing woodland that colonised the area at the end of the Ice Age and gradually changed as different tree species became established in response to the changing climate. At the same time, early inhabitants began both to modify and remove woodland to meet the needs of the growing population. Traditional method of woodland management Buried pollen deposits from the Lea Valley and Woodland clearance increased dramatically Epping Forest provide a clue as to what was with the introduction of settled agriculture in the happening locally.